You got a one-way video interview invite. Now what?

Why employers use them

Volume. A recruiter can review 50 recorded screens in the time 5 live calls take, and every candidate gets identical questions and timing — which employers consider fairer. They're now standard at the first screen for high-volume roles: customer success, sales, consulting, finance, nursing, retail management, and most graduate programs.

The format, concretely

• 3-6 questions, shown one at a time on screen.
• Prep window: usually 30 seconds (sometimes up to 2 minutes) before recording auto-starts.
• Answer cap: typically 1-3 minutes; recording cuts off at the limit.
• Retakes: often none. Some employers allow one retry on select questions — assume you get zero.
• Deadline: complete within a few days of the invite, any time of day.

A 3-day preparation plan

1. Day 1 — stories. Reread the job description. Pick 4-5 experiences that map to its core competencies; tag each with Situation-Task-Action-Result beats and one number for the result.
2. Day 2 — conditions. Practice on camera under real constraints (timed prep, hard cap, no retakes). Watch your recordings once: check eye line, pace, and whether answers actually end.
3. Day 3 — logistics. Quiet room, camera at eye level, light facing you, phone off, laptop plugged in. Do one warm-up question minutes before the real thing, then go.

What reviewers actually notice

Recruiters reviewing dozens of recordings consistently cite the same separators: candidates who answer the question asked (not the one they prepared for), structure that's easy to follow at 1.5× playback speed, concrete outcomes over adjectives, and energy that survives a camera lens. None of these require talent — all of them require reps under real conditions.